In this episode of the Bradley Lecture Series Podcast, we’re revisiting “The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campus” by Alan Kors of the University of Pennsylvania, originally given at AEI’s headquarters in October of 1998.

Professor Kors’ lecture provides valuable insight into the history of this problem. While there is plenty of blame to go around, Professor Kors makes the case that those whose roles we see least may have the strongest effect. In particular, he discusses the influence of mid-level college administrators who have been given ever broader authority over students’ lives, speech, and consciences from the time the students set foot on campus for orientation to the time they leave.

In this episode of the Bradley Lecture Series Podcast, we’re revisiting “Recovering the Case for Capitalism” by Yuval Levin, Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, originally given at AEI’s headquarters in January of 2010.

Though much has changed in the American political landscape since that time, many of the forces arrayed against capitalism remain the same. Levin’s lecture provides an affirmative argument for democratic capitalism. But it’s not an argument for a caricature, or for moral license, or for laissez-faire. It is an argument for the moral good of national wealth, of diffuse power, and of virtues encouraged by market pressures, but also by tradition, family, and love.

When the National Assessment for Educational progress scores came out this year, media headlines express concern over lack of progress in American education. But what do these tests actually tell us? On this episode of the AEI Education Podcast, host Nat Malkus talks to Tom Loveless and James Harvey about how NAEP and international tests are used and misused, what they tell us about American education, and how the “proficient” benchmark may be misleading policymakers and the public.

The “How High the Bar” report mentioned in the podcast: http://www.superintendentsforum.org/the-roundtable-in-2018/how-high-the-bar-report

This episode of the Bradley Lecture Series podcast features Professor Samuel Huntington on his famous essay, “The Clash of Civilizations.” In this lecture, given at AEI one year before the essay’s publication in Foreign Affairs, Huntington makes the case that the post-Cold War order is entering a new phase wherein conflicts will no longer be defined ideology or by economics. Rather, conflicts will fundamentally be about culture and culture’s broadest level of identity short of what distinguished human beings from other species, civilization. A quarter century after its initial release, Huntington’s ideas are being revisited and gaining new followers around the world.

This lecture was originally given on October 19, 1992. Full details can be found on the original event page here.

This episode of the Bradley Lecture Series podcast features Professor Christopher Jencks, now of Harvard University, and AEI’s Robert Doar. In his lecture, Jencks evaluates the impact of major social welfare programs dating back to the New Deal, concluding that, contrary to popular opinion, they have done a better job over the past generations than most of us realize. Of course, social welfare policy in America has changed dramatically since this lecture was given in the summer of 1996, and, in the first section of this episode, AEI’s Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies Robert Doar discusses what reform has looked like since and puts Jencks’ lecture in context.

This lecture was originally given on May 13, 1996. Full details can be found on the original event page here.

This episode of the Bradley Lecture Series Podcast features Professor Gertrude Himmelfarb, one of the preeminent historians of the Victorian Era. In her lecture, Professor Himmelfarb speaks about the cultural transformation from Victorian virtues to modern values in a morally relativist society. She argues that people during the Victorian era developed policies and social norms to encourage hard work, self-reliance, self-respect, and pride in country, while people today have demoralized social debates.

As controversies over values grow ever more divisive, Himmelfarb reminds listeners that values are no substitute for virtues–and that the Victorians, for all their flaws, had something important to teach us about what it means to live a worthwhile life.

In this episode of the Bradley Lecture Series, AEI’s Dr. Leon Kass explores fundamental questions. What is human happiness, and how is it attained? What is the connection between human excellence and human flourishing?

The deepest, wisest, and (arguably) most relevant exploration of human flourishing and its connection with human excellence may be found in Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics,” the truth(s) of which are set forth here. Special attention is also paid to Aristotle’s great-souled man and the enduring relevance, even in modern democratic times, of this peak of moral nobility.

AEI’s Karlyn Bowman introduces the Bradley Lectures Podcast, the newest offering on the AEI Podcast Channel, launching early in September of 2018. The Bradley Lectures were a series of occasional lectures at the American Enterprise Institute, made possible by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which aimed to enrich debate in the Washington policy community through exploration of the philosophical and historical underpinnings of current controversies. For more than a quarter century, they attracted some of the most distinguished intellectuals in the country, including Irving Kristol, Robert Bork, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Walter Berns, James Q. Wilson, Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington, and others who have added immeasurably to our nation’s discourse. AEI is delighted to continue the legacy of the Bradley Lectures by offering them to a fresh audience.

To view a full list of the Bradley Lectures, see the Bradley Lectures page on the AEI website.